Somewhat OT: why the Chiefs/Fins game wasn't broadcast

[jedinite]

It was brought up in a thread on the Chiefs / Dolphins game that there was "a law" prohibiting the broadcast of the game nationally. A couple people, myself included, question whether this was actually a law or just a tradition/etc.

Found more detail today:

Friday night lights-out

A nearly 40-year-old law prevented a national TV audience from getting the rare treat of a Friday night NFL game. The Dolphins-Chiefs game was moved up to Oct. 21 to avoid Hurricane Wilma. It aired only on Miami and Kansas City CBS affiliates.

When the NFL and American Football League began merger talks in 1966, Congress allowed an exemption to Title 15, the part of U.S. law that covers trusts and monopolies. The exemption protects the NFL's near-monopoly on football, provided it doesn't televise games on Friday nights or Saturdays — when high school and college games are scheduled.

Had the NFL shown Friday's game on network TV or DirecTV, it might have opened itself to antitrust lawsuits from any school that wanted to sue.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/footb...de-scoop_x.htm

[King Yao]

nice, good info.